40i 
bulking on their arrival in London should be entirely 
done away with, thus effecting a very considerable sav- 
ing in London charges. At present many well-sorted and 
carefully re-bulked teas are perfectly spoilt in make 
tl rough packing by pressure. (In Messrs. George 
White & Co.'s circular above referred to those 
brokers say ; " Parcels containing dust are not 
readily saleable ; therefore this should be sifted 
out," etc.) 
(4) The time require for packing the tea with 
the machine is exactly half of that taken by the 
coolies in hand-packing. 
(a) In machine-packing the coolies required to 
shake or tramp the chests can be entirely dis- 
pensed with. 
The tea packer now offered to the public will 
greatly assist in simplifying the operations of tea- 
packing, and it is worth remembering that it -will 
pack into a chest the maximum quantity of tea that 
it in [josxilde to put into it without breaking or alter- 
ing the tea in appearance or make. 
PLANTING IN SBLANGOR. 
Mr. Fort so well-known in Ceylon as planter and 
merchant — has not be n treated very well in Sela - 
gor as the following extract from he Si gapore Free 
Press will sho v. We cannot understand the official 
action unless the land r quired had been sp. cially 
reserved. Fow planting pi >neers in new territory 
would care to take up less t an 1,000 acres: — 
THE SELANGOR GOVERNMENT AND THE 
PLANTER. 
HOW HE WAS "ENCOURAGED "; THE WAY TO 
ATTRACT CAPITAL. 
There has just been concluded an incident in 
Selangor which exemplifies in a very emphatic 
manner what reading the Government have adopted 
of the statements which have been made from time 
to time by Residents of the Native States and by 
the Secretary of State for the Colonies on "the 
encouragement of agriculture and planting." 
The facts are simple. Mr. F. G. Fort, a Ceylon 
Planter of considerable experience, and one of the 
leading men there, travelled all over the Native 
States intending to select land for planting Liberian 
Coffee. He made his selection, and offered $5 an acre 
for 1,000 acres of land, with the intention of planting 
it with coffee. Passing over the usual lengthy delays 
which occur when land is applied for in Selangor, 
we may quote the final letter of Mr. Fort's agent to 
Government. — 
October 30th, 1894. 
To the Secretary to Government, Selangor. 
SIR,— Iain instructed by Mr. F. G. Fort to inform the 
Government of Selangor that he declines with thanks the 
320 acres granted to him. His reason is the insufficient 
area, which, in his opinion, does not justify an investment in 
«uch a distant country. 
Perhaps I may be permitted to say it is a matter for 
regret that the Government have not seen their way to 
grant a sufficient area of land to a planter of Mr. F. G. 
Port's standing, at the price that was offered by him, such 
price being higher than his hitherto evei been paid for 
agricultural 1 md in a Native State on the area he asked for, 
which is not more than sufficient to form an estate of a 
suitable size for economical working. — I have the honour to 
remain, your obec^ient servant, Thos. H. Hill. 
The price offered for the land was $5 an acre — a 
higher rate than has hitherto been paid for a large 
block of agricultural land in a Native State. The 
export duty on coffee amounts to at least $:-i'G0 per acre 
per annum. It is easy to calculate the direct revenue 
the Sate of Selangor has loit by this niggardly policy 
of refusing to grant the very reasonable area of 1,000 
acres. One wonders at the foolishness of it. But 
when the amount of money that would have to be 
spent in the State in planting that land ; the opening 
up that would have to bo done ; the coolies to be 
employed ; the indirect increase to the retenue in a 
hundred ways by the undertaking of an extensive 
planting enterprise ; one is lost in astonishment at 
the adoption of such a suicidal policy. Thero can b» 
no doubt that 320 acres is insufficient with the neces- 
sary forest reserve for coffee, to form an estate of a 
character remunerative to the planter. The experience 
of Ceylon has shown that.* * * 
The whole transaction, being a typical one, and 
one that will stand as premanent precedent, 
is unfortunate for the agricultural future of 
the State. If it saves planters from a fruitless visit 
to Selangor and Perak and from a waste of time and 
money in personal inspection, it will have done good 
service. Neither the Native Staes' ruers, 
Councils, nor the British Residents, nor the people 
in general, nor Singapore and Penang merchants 
and traders can do anything but strongly disapprove 
of his puerile trifling in the name of a policy. 
There are l'J European Coffee Estates in Selangor. 
Thirteen of them are over 320 acres in extent ; twelve 
of them are 500 acres or over ; and four are 1,000 
acres or more. It is true there are but two that 
have yet opened more than 320 acres. The estates 
are only in their infancy, however, and opening up 
is a slow process. Gambier and pepper planters are 
"encouraged" (Land Regulation 54) by being allowed 
to select an area of not less than 250 nor more than 
2,000 acres. There is hardly any comparison possible 
between the Chinese gambier estate and a coffee 
estate, in respect to their valve to a country. 
NEWS FROM THE CENTRAL PROVINCE: 
PLANTING AND OTHERWISE. 
(Notes by " Wanderer." ) 
Nov. 9. 
Fruit Culture. — You now and again urges 
some of our small capitalists to go in for this 
cultivation. The Calcutta Englishman follows 
your lead in the following editorial paragraph : — 
Fruit culture in the Nilgiris is at present the sub- 
ject of an interesting correspondence in the Madras 
papers. One writer, who is firmly convinced of the 
excellent commercial prospects of the enterprise, 
suggests that it will afford an admirable opening for 
Europeans with a turn for planting. After a resi- 
dence of twenty-six years in the Nilgiri hills, he 
knows of only three cases in which Europeans have 
opened up orchards with a view to profit, but in 
each instance the undertaking has yielded a band- 
some return. The initial cost is, if his calculations 
be correct, extremely small, and in one case an orchard 
of less than an acre in area gave an annual return 
of about three hundred rupees. The question is worthy 
of further consideration as affording a possible opening 
for Anglo-Indians who remain in this country after 
retiring from active life. 
Some of the passed pupils in the School of Agri- 
culture ought to give fruit culture a thorough 
trial. What is wanted is a market for thoroughly 
well-ripened fruit. Our Hotel projirietors and 
Steamer Companies certainly give little or no 
encouragement. As for our appus they are too 
completely in the hands of our fruit vendors. 
TIMBER FOR TEA BOXES. 
The latest Indian Forester has an interesting 
"note on the use of siniul wood for tea-boxes 
in Assam/' Mr. Smythies reports that there 
is no immediate prospect of the supply becoming 
exhausted, as the simul tree is of very fast 
growth, but contractors will have to go farther 
and farther from the mills every year. Although 
the wood is extensively used for tea-boxes in 
Assam, there appears to be a strong prejudice 
against it among planters in Dehra Dun. The 
"simul" turns out to be an old acquaintance' in 
"Bbmbax Malabaricum," the " Katu-inibul" (the 
well-known cotton tree) of the Sinhalese. It 
seems to be very largely used in Assam, no 
fewer than nine saw mills being engaged in 
cut ling up the limber of this tree alone and 
368,323 tea-boxes paid royalty to Governmetn 
